& INTRODUCTION. 



their relations and traditions many particulars of the Tartars, 

 which are to be found in Purchas's Pilgrim, and other books of 

 travels. The first regular" traveller of the monkish kind, who 

 committed his discoveries to writing, was John du Plant Carpin, 

 who, with some of his brethren, about the year 1246, carried a let- 

 ter from pope Innocent to the great khan of Tartary, in favour of 

 the Christian subjects in that prince's extensive dominions. Soon 

 after this, a spirit of travelling into Tartary and India became ge- 

 neral : and it would be no difficult task to prove that many Euro- 

 peans, about the end of the fourteenth century, served in the ar- 

 mies of Timur, or Tamerlane, one of the greatest princes of Tar- 

 tary, whose conquests reached to the remotest corners of India; 

 and that they introduced into Europe the use of gunpowder and 

 artillery; the discovery made by a German chemist being only 

 partial and accidental. 



After the death of Timur, who, jealous of the rising power of 

 the Turks, had checked their progress, the Christian adventurers, 

 upon their return, magnifying the vast riches of the East-Indies, 

 inspired their countrymen with a spirit of adventure and . -p. 

 discovery, and were the first who suggested the practicabili- . " ' 

 ty of a passage thither by sea. The Portuguese had been 

 always famous for their application to maritime affairs ; and to 

 their discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, Great Britain is at this 

 day indebted for her Indian commerce. 



The first adventurers contented themselves with short voyages, 

 creeping along the coast of Africa, discovering cape after cape ; 

 but by making a gradual progress southward, they, in the year 

 1497, at length discovered and doubled the extreme cape of that 

 continent, which opened a passage by sea to the Eastern Ocean, 

 and all those countries known by the names of India, China, and 

 Japan. 



While the Portuguese were intent upon a passage to India by 

 the east, Columbus, a native of Genoa, conceived a project of sail- 

 ing thither by the west. His proposal being condemned by his 

 countrymen as chimerical and absurd, he laid his scheme succes- 

 sively before the courts of France, England, and Portugal, where 

 he had no better success. Such repeated disappointments would 

 have broken the spirit of any man but Columbus, The expedition 

 required expense, and he had nothing to defray it. Spain was now 

 his only resource ; and there, after eight years attendance, he at 

 length succeeded, through the interest of queen Isabella. This 

 princess was prevailed upon to patronise him by the representation 

 of Juan Perez, guardian of the monastery of Rabida. He was a 

 man of considerable learning, and of some credit with queen Isa- 

 bella ; and being warmly attached to Columbus, from his personal 

 acquaintance with him, and knowledge of his merit, he had entered 

 into an accurate examination of that great man's project, in con- 

 junction with a physician settled in his neighbourhood, who was 

 eminent for his skill in mathematical knowledge. This investiga- 

 tion completely satisfied them of the solidity of the principles on 

 which Columbus founded his opinion, and of the probability of suc- 

 cess in executing the plan which he proposed. Perez, therefore, 

 so strongly recommended it to queen Isabella, that she warmly en- 

 tered into the scheme, and even generously offered, to the honour 

 of her sex> to pledge her own jewels, ia order to raise as much m.Of 



